160 



primeval timber and it had never been cleared. Brush had been 

 piled in great mounds and stacks, the old underbrush had been 

 mostly cut and the place fairly cleaned up; a few old trees still 

 stood. For years the area had lain fallow, fire had not devastated 

 it, and animals had grazed it so that the avenues and twisting lanes 



between the aging brush-piles I thought must be like lawns about 

 which I had read in diverting books. The place was far away from 

 lines of common travel and apparently I was the only person who 

 had regularly explored it. I had wandered there alone on many 

 days and in varying seasons, and I knew its denizens and its moods. 

 Now I would go through it with new anticipation. 



